“Hey Kristen…do you think the seat between us is symbolism for the distance in our relationship.” “Sure Bill.” Image via IFC

For a film starring a guy known for his Alan Alda impression and a girl known for her awkward stammering, The Skeleton Twins sure is sad. In fact, the biggest laugh you will get out of The Skeleton Twins is from a joke about a famous dead dog.

The Skeleton Twins checks off a myraid of indie movie cliches, from white people being sad underwater, to white people being sad while sticking their head out of a car window. A good alternate title for this film would be Little Miss Zoloft.

Bill Hader plays Milo, a struggling actor who hits rock bottom and attempts suicide. His twin sister Maggie (Kristen Wiig) is about to commit suicide, before she is informed about her brother. *cue Alec Baldwin voiceover* The siblings hadn’t spoken in 10 years. So Maggie takes Milo in to her quaint little home in Upstate New York, and the pair spends the next 90 minutes working out their problems. It’s like watching a therapy session for the small price of $15 (okay, so that’s not a lot in New York standards).

Like any good film, The Skeleton Twins is an example of empathy. Here are two characters that have done some terrible things, and yet it always seems possible that they can move on beyond their mistakes.

Writing and acting is something of a symbiotic relationship: one can’t be good without the other. While The Skeleton Twins has some quality dialogue and some killer dark humor, the performances elevate it to another level. Hader maintains some of the silliness that has made him such a comedy star. Then his amazing and unexpected monologue about peaking in high school becomes the film’s thesis statement. Meanwhile, Wiig does a great Margot Tenenbaum impression as a woman who maybe settled just a bit too much. Speaking of the Tenenbaums, Luke Wilson makes a great comeback to the big screen as Maggie’s unassuming and sincere husband. He’s the kind of guy who would wear a “Pain is Temporary, Pride Lasts Forever” t-shirt, and he is an unfortunate bystander during the twins’ reign of terror. Hopefully, this means Luke Wilson won’t have to act in any more AT&T commercials.

Typically, overly dramatic films can be painful to watch, as if the director is taking joy in making the audience sad. However, The Skeleton Twins feels like the right kind of sadness. It is the kind of story that believes there is a way out, and that even the tiniest gesture, like fixing a fish tank, can amend a relationship. This is not a film about characters who only know pain. It is about characters with a bright past, and a bleak present. However, that doesn’t mean that there best days are behind them.

Brain Farts From The Edge

• Okay, maybe I made this sound a tad too grim. Just know that there’s a scene where Milo and Maggie get high in a dentist’s office.
• I think I might have groaned like, twice during the film’s running time. Not bad.
• This isn’t exactly Luke Wilson’s big comeback. For that, you should watch every single episode of Enlightened right now.
• The Skeleton Twins was produced by Jay and Mark Duplass. Right now, the Duplass seal of approval is the indie world’s equivalent of the Colbert Bump.
• Good job, guy who won an Emmy for Modern Family this year for no reason.
• The film’s portrayal of suicide and depression was making me think of Robin Williams again. We still miss you, Robin.
• Having just graduated from Syracuse, the film, which is set somewhere in the Hudson Valley, made me miss that part of the state of New York that isn’t Manhattan.
• As I wrote recently, dysfunctional families are just more fun than normal families.

Hi, can I please be friends with both of you? I’m kind of cool and not desperate, I swear. Image via Vanity Fair

I can’t do it. I just…I can’t do it. I can’t…review…They Came Together.

Don’t worry, I haven’t reached my breaking point. I have just found a film that has rendered itself unreviewable. That is not to say that They Came Together is bad or difficult to understand; it is just to say that is so self-aware that at times it won’t feel like you are watching a movie, but rather two idiots with too much imagination pitching their idea for a romantic comedy. And that is not a diss at all.

They Came Together starts with a double date where the story of Joel (Paul Rudd) and Molly’s (Amy Poehler) relationship goes on for a very long time, and turns out to be just like “a corny romantic comedy.” Thus, they proceed to tell the story of the worst romantic comedy possible. They Came Together tries to be bad, and that is what makes it so good.

For that reason, I feel like an ordinary review would not work here. So here is a long of jumble of thoughts on They Came Together:

This is the MacGruber of romantic comedies: They Came Together is a very specific kind of parody, in that it is both self-aware and unaware. The dinner table conversations are a way to tell the audience to be in on the joke. The flashbacks play it completely straight. They Came Together is an experiment in only using cliches to construct a plot.

They must have had to watch a lot of rom-coms They Came Together feels like it was made by people who have seen way too many romantic comedies, and that is why it usually works so well.

The humor They Came Together comes from the much of the comedy team involved in The State and Wet Hot American Summer. Their sense of humor is based less on jokes and more on absolute absurdity. The dead body in the pile of leaves might just induce the most laughs per capita.

The best point about romantic comedies They Came Together made me realize why rom-coms can never imitate real life: it is because every character and situation is just meant to service the two romantic leads. Every other character is just there to either stop them, support them (such as the sassy sidekick), or provide a miscellaneous piece of information (like David Wain’s office drone who purposefully is not around for any other reason). The rom-com might be the most selfish genre out there.

Amy Poehler What a great lady. She plays both the ditz and the MPDG at the same time and with such ease as well. The surprise on Molly’s face when Joel tells her he also loves fiction books is priceless. I also like the idea that this is a world where, well, not too many people seem to like fiction.

Am I watching I Love You, Man? Don’t get me wrong here, I am a huge fan of I Love You, Man. this 2009 bromance starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel gets better on repeat viewings. It wasn’t until I watched They Came Together that I realized how many rom-com tropes are in I Love You, Man. The big brother/little brother dynamic in They Came Together felt right out of I Love You, Man. If Paul Rudd is intentionally trying to make fun of himself, then good for him for being a good sport about it.

Playing it straight They Came Together has a surprising amount of dramatic moments and they all manage to be hilarious. That is because they are played completely straight and strangely, the more genuine they are, the funnier they manage to be. Nobody understands movie cliches like these guys do.

A Room reference? David Wain and Paul Rudd were two of the earliest supporters of The Room before it became the cult classic that it is today. I wouldn’t be surprised if the scene in which Rudd and Jason Mantzoukas throw around a football in the office is an homage to that scene in The Room where they toss around the pigskin while wearing tuxedos.

One thing I had trouble with There’s a scene where Paul Rudd goes to visit his Bubee. It is not the Jewish stereotypes I had trouble with (I loved those), but…welll…you’ll see. It just left me feeling kind of weird afterwards, but I think that was the point. It just felt kind of out of place in a film that otherwise chooses all of its scenes and little moments very wisely.

How this ranks in the David Wain filmography This does not reach Wet Hot American Summer or Role Models levels, and I have not seen Wanderlust yet so I cannot compare it. Like Wet Hot, this is an absurd and very specific parody that has the makings of a future classic. I look forward to watching it again soon.

Why we watch romantic comedies I would like to discuss a little moment towards the end. It is hardly a spoiler, because for a movie like this, spoilers would be ruining the best jokes (which I have tried my best not to do). Basically, the moment I am thinking of shows that the story of Joel and Molly is actually much darker than they make it out to be. But they would rather tell this corny rom-com version. This is why rom-coms exist: it is so much easier, and much nicer, to tell a story where true love exists and only comes with easily avoidable obstacles. I like to rip on romantic comedies a lot, but I am not against this idea of more positive storytelling.

Overall, They Came Together is the kind of film that I wish there was more of this summer movie season.

Never thought J.K. Simmons could look this scary. Image via Sundance Film Guide

Unfortunately, I did not get to attend the Sundance Film Festival this year. This is tough, because if you’ve been to it once, then you just want to go again and again.

While I couldn’t be there in person, that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t follow all of the action vicariously. Guys, the Internet is a wonderful thing.

Through descriptions and reviews of all of the films that were screened at the Festival, I was able to compile a list of this year’s entries that I want to see the most. Who knows, maybe one of these could be the next “Reservoir Dogs” or “Clerks.” Whatever happens, at least one of (if not all) of these films will have a character who either plays ukelele or looks really sad while taking a shower.

Read the list below:

Boyhood

In order to understand the film, the behind-the-scenes of “Boyhood” is crucial to know: director Richard Linklater filmed it in bits and pieces over a 12 year period in order to accurately capture the aging of the lead child character. This idea is so interesting and ambitious and proves that Linklater is secretly one of America’s most innovative filmmakers. Remember, this is the same dude that also directed “Dazed & Confused,” “School of Rock,” and “Bernie.” Linklater refuses to stick to the same style and formula, which is why I love his films so much.

Image via Sundance Film Guide

Nymphomaniac: Volume I

I have yet to see a single Lars von Trier film (oops), but that doesn’t make me any less excited for “Nymphomaniac,” which was the surprise secret screening at the Festival. “Nymphomaniac” is an epic about sex addiction. If that doesn’t sound indulgent enough, then you should also know that the film had to be split in two, as the original cut is over four hours long. This is what we get for complaining about the length of “The Wolf of Wall Street.” For now, I will see “Nymphomaniac” partly out of pure curiosity, and partly because I never imagined that Shia LaBeouf and Uma Thurman would star together in a Danish sex comedy. Yes, I’ll watch “Melancholia” soon, so please stop asking.

Note: I am pretty sure that any photo, poster, or clip that I put up for this film will offend someone or get me in serious trouble. Go look it up at your own risk. 

The Skeleton Twins

I try not to be pulled in to films by star power alone. However, I will make an exception to this rule when the stars in question happen to be Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig. The pair of “Saturday Night Live” alums star in “The Skeleton Twins” as a pair of estranged twins who reunite. The two of them are so good at playing silly, so this will be the first time they really get to play serious (they were both in “Adventureland” together though, albeit as comic relief). The two of them should be great in dramatic roles, just don’t join the dark side for good, guys.

Doing a great impression of “melancholy white people” Image via Sundance Film Guide

Whiplash

“Whiplash” was one of the most highly buzzed about films at the Festival.  J.K. Simmons continues to be an underrated character actor, while Miles Teller is just about on his way to huge stardom, as long as he never stars in anything like “That Awkward Moment” ever again. Once again, I try not to be fully convinced by star power alone, but “Whiplash” had me at “J.K. Simmons yells and curses at Miles Teller a lot.”

Image via Sundance Film Guide

Wish I Was Here

“Wish I Was Here” garnered a strong love it or hate it reaction from Sundance crowds, and I’m not sure if that’s because of the film itself, or because Zach Braff is a fairly divisive figure. I am excited to see Braff’s long awaited Kickstarter-funded directorial follow up to “Garden State.” While it seems fairly uncool to like “Garden State” anymore, it is important to remember that most of the annoying indie tropes associated with the film were original at the time that it came out. Therefore, it is the imitators, as opposed to the inventors, who deserve more of the blame here.* Anyway, if a film caused this much debate at Sundance, then there must be something interesting about it. Hopefully, this could also serve as a comeback for Kate Hudson, who deserves better roles after years stuck in rom-com hell. Also, I am required to end this paragraph by saying that this film also stars Mandy Patinkin.

Image via Sundance Film Guide

*But that whole “two people connect while listening to The Shins” thing? That’s all on you, Braff.

Films I Would See Based On Their Titles Alone: Afronauts, Dear White People